Steven Wright is very funny, which is probably how you got to know him, either from his role as the DJ in Reservoir Dogs, or as the Guy on the Couch in Half Baked, or from one of his Grammy-nominated comedy albums. And he's still funny, on his tours or when he shows up on TV, as he did recently on FX's Louie, or as he does regularly on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. We talked to him while he was headlining the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival in Austin this past weekend (sponsored in part by Esquire) about his three decades of deadpan observations — and how he feels about Sears.

ESQUIRE: How long does it take to refine a joke after it comes to your head?

STEVEN WRIGHT: When the idea comes, the wording comes within, like, five seconds later. My mind just says, okay, this is how it will be said, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang — like that.

ESQ: So you basically have a comedy assembly line in your head.

SW: There's really only one way, for me, to say it. So I guess I figured that out pretty quickly. There's not, Well, I could say it like this, or I could say it like that. There is none of that.

SW: I'm not trying to write jokes. I've been doing it for so long that that part of my brain is, like, exercised to know that things could be jokes, even though I'm not doing it consciously. You know what I mean?

ESQ: Like muscle memory.

SW: It's like I walk into a Sears or something, and this thing is on display, and my brain will go, Wait a minute — look at this. That could be a joke. But I didn't go into Sears. I can't believe I'm talking about Sears. I have nothing against Sears.

ESQ: Steven Wright has no opinion on Sears.

SW: No, nothing against. I don't go into Sears thinking there might be a joke in Sears. But if I'm in there — you know, you just notice something.

ESQ: So you're filtering out.

SW: I'm a filter, but in a very laidback, casual way. I don't get up, get dressed, go out, and think, Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.

ESQ: How has getting older affected the filter?

SW: I guess I'm not as focused on tiny subjects. Before, I would be catching tinier pieces of life. Now it's a little bit bigger.

SW: He's a genius, man. He's unbelievable. He's just amazing. He wrote all my lines, of course, and he had me saying things he knew I would never be saying.

ESQ: And you're on Craig Ferguson's show pretty consistently. How do you develop that rapport?

SW: He doesn't really get to those subjects that you've prepared. He likes to go off on a tangent. It's like me and him are improving for the whole eight minutes, or whatever it is, which is fun for me, 'cause I never did improv before. He's brilliant, that guy. His mind goes a thousand miles as hour.

ESQ: Is the comedown from that heightened improv different than a regular performance?

SW:[Pause] Yeah, it is a little bit different, 'cause it's more dangerous. They're both dangerous. Even with the show, you don't know really what will happen.

ESQ: A lot of people first saw Steven Wright in Half Baked.

SW: Dave Chappelle was a guest host of a talk show — a late-night half-hour talk show. I don't even remember the name. I was the guest. When the show was over, I said, "Man, we should be in a movie together." He said, "I'm making a movie now! It's coming up right now! You wanna be in it?" I said, "Yeah, I'll be in it." I didn't even know what it was about.

ESQ: It's sort of a cult classic.

SW: I have a nice story about it. The movie came out. It did barely any business. It was gone quickly. I saw it — I thought it was hilarious. I still think it's hilarious. But it was one of those that didn't do well in the theater. So now it's almost two years since I filmed the movie — I'm putting gas in my car in Santa Monica. No one has ever mentioned that movie to me, no person on the street, ever. And I'm putting gas in my car, and this guy says, "Oh, you're the guy on the couch!" I said, "What?!" Now you have to understand, the movie's not even in my head. It wasn't a big, smash movie. "What are you talking —" "You're the guy on the couch!" "What?" "In Half Baked!" "Oh, yeah, yeah." "You're him, right?" "Yeah, yeah." From then on, I'd be walking in the store: "Oh my God! It's the guy on the couch! I can't believe it."

ESQ: Do you still get that?

SC: For years it was like that. People loved it. I'm happy for Dave Chappelle.